I called Phil and he said she’s gonna get the kids. What’s the point of having a motherfucking lawyer I’m paying millions of dollars if he can’t get the one thing I want? He’s so goddamn pompous, “we’re paying less money than we thought possible, I’ve got my best men.” I don’t care if she gets the Florida house so long as she doesn’t get my kids. My goddamn kids. No, no fuck Meredith this isn’t your fault. We’ve done nothing wrong. It’s just my idiot of a lawyer and my vengeful bitch of a wife. She’s hired some shark you know? Trying to make me out like some absentee father fucking the coworker and all that. She’s just doing this to spite us. She’ never cared about them. Sure, she was with them more but I was supporting this family. I would wake up at 3 am to take the metro into the city, get there as soon as the market opened, I’d come home late, exhausted, but I’d still have time for the. And where was she? In the basement doing some fucking kettle bell workout or making some low cal meal. I can’t let them live with said to go, got a job where I thought I could make the most money, did everything I was supposed to be for no reason beside that. I was working for nothing, no reward. Then Jonathan was born and suddenly there’s this other creature who’s like dependent on you and has all of this potential and whatever. And like he was like this wild little kid, always throwing things and shit. And before then it would’ve pissed me off and I’d have thought, how can I focus like this? But instead it was endearing. I had something in my life that wasn’t like work. And someone who I was always there for. It was the same with Ellie. She was completely monster of a baby as well, that’s from HER side I can assure you, but I liked it. They didn’t do what they were supposed to and I think I respected them for that. You know they’re in middle school now, so they’re not, throwing crayons or whatever but still, there’s this spark in them. I see it in you too, your jacket never matched your shirt and for some reason it reminded me of them, I guess, but it’s different. I can’t lose that spark in my life. I can’t go back to just, mindless, endless, work. The thing is there is a way out. That’s what I’m trying to say here. There’s only on thing that Phil said could make the court give me join custody. I don’t know how to tell you but the fact is the courts aren’t gonna let the kids be raised by a mistress. It’s you or them Meredith. And I hate her for making me choose but I can’t turn this down. I love you, you know I do. But I love my kids more. So we need to end this. Don’t cry or anything okay? It’s not about you. But I’ve got to do something right for a change.

Humanist and activist Ruddy Roye, displayed his series of images “When Living is a Protest” at the Steven Kasher gallery. His images deliver the oppression faced by racial minorities in society. Specifically, he focuses on African Americans. Each image is followed by a recount of his encounter with the person in the image. Before reading the story, the image is open to interpretation. This gives the image a powerful voice. One image in particular portrayed an African American man in front of a wall with the American flag. However, there are no white stripes or stars on the flag. This could mean that African Americans are underrepresented in society and until this day, they face discrimination. The man tilts his head and looks up at the sky, which gives a pondering feeling and sympathy.

Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, Chelsea — November 9th, 2016 felt like a life lived in a day. Everything I thought could go wrong, went wrong. My world felt like it was crashing down and I had no say in its choice of sledgehammer. School was tortuous, and I’ve never cried more in a classroom than on the day after Election Night. Seeing the incredible work of Carrie Mae Weems and Ernesto Neto brought the tiniest sliver of hope to an otherwise hopeless day.

Weems’s celebration and pride in being a black woman, and experiencing her Shonda Rhimes-inspired gallery was refreshing. A world exists outside of my suburban high school. A world of light and diversity, of culture and exuberance. Her Blue Notes collection, nestled in an alcove of hauntingly beautiful toned images, is punctuated with bright squares of flat color.

Upon reaching Ernesto Neto’s“The Serpent’s Energy Gave Birth To Humanity”, my spirits were lifted to an even higher level. Neto’s work encapsulates us in a crocheted heaven, a womb of sorts, shielding us from the ever changing, downright terrifying world. We revert to the most simplistic sensations. Grasping the strands of soft cloth as if our lives depend on it. Donning a crocheted scarf of sorts, to feel the weighty material on your shoulders. Playing the wooden maracas and simple drum to feel some sense of control.

Pictured is my six-year-old sister, Lyla. Only seven hours earlier, she cried about the day’s news, my mother reassuring her. “You have to work hard in school, and maybe someday you’ll be president. She cleared the way.” Those words stayed with me throughout the day, but it wasn’t until I saw my sister in the crochet womb, weaving through tightly wound tunnels and squealing in joyous rapture that I came to peace.

Neto’s gallery served as my shoulder to cry on. A refuge for my scared little sister. A meditative practice for my worried mother. A home for those who are discontented and disturbed by the non-crocheted, sharp, angular world around us. Everyone needs a soft place to land at one time or another.

The Pipilotti Rist exhibit at the New Museum is made up of a variety of different large- scale video installations. All were non-conventional projections of film, some on the ceiling, some being on the wall or in secluded boxes. Many of the installations had places where you could sit comfortably either on the floor with pillows or on beds. The comfortable setting invites you to spend long periods watching the videos which is necessary to gain an understanding of what they are really about. Many of the pieces seem to have a deeper meaning that could only be recognized through watching them repeatedly because they have no dialogue or storyline like traditional films. Instead, the projections show organic scenes from Nature and some have a cast of seemingly random characters. For example, one of the pieces projected onto the corner of a room features an upper class white woman with expensive attire skipping along a road with a large stick of plant matter, smashing all the windows of the parked cars along the street. Upon coming across a police officer both smile at each other and continue onward. You can tell the cars are of poor quality suggesting that the setting is in a poor neighborhood. This represents how the upper class can destroy the lower class without any repercussions.

In comparison “Pixel Forest” isn’t an actual video but is a whole gallery installation saturated with l.e.d bulbs with changing colors hanging from the ceiling on strings. When you enter the darkened room, you are immediately surrounded by the changing lights as you walk into the space. The warm glowing lights give a feeling of wonder and excitement, like seeing holiday decorations. When the lights were blue it felt as if you were at the bottom of the ocean and when they became red and orange you felt as if you were looking up at a giant jellyfish, seeing all of its tendrils hanging down glowing in the blackness of the ocean.

I highly recommend this exhibition to anyone with an explorative nature because “Pixel Forest” is open to many personal interpretations.